The Flame to Kill A Titan
by masterSZS
Summary: Humanity lies on the brink of extinction. Hidden behind the sacred walls that mysteriously appeared over 100 years ago, humans struggle to survive, forever living in the fear of Titans. This is a historical report of how I, Prince Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, came to be thrust into such an environment. Nothing could have possibly prepared me for the horror that followed.
1. Titan Fall

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing from Avatar or Attack on Titan, save the various OC's I may implement throughout.

My second story! Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

* * *

_Chapter 1_

_Titan Fall_

"_Please, Father, I only had the Fire Nation's best interests at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn." _

_The top of my head lay pressed against the cold metal floor of the arena. All around me hundreds of Fire Nation nobles had gathered to watch the ensuing Agni Kai. For a participant, especially a Prince such as myself, to bow down so low and beg forgiveness was a grave disgrace. _

"_Rise and fight, Prince Zuko."_

_My hands clenched as I kept my head down, tears threatening to spill from my sockets at any moment. The thud of my Father's footsteps grew ever closer with each passing second. Soon he would be upon me. There was still a chance for me to save face. All I had to do was get up now. I just needed to stand up and fight. I had to fight. _

"_I won't fight you."_

_Coward. I didn't need to see his face to know what he was thinking, what every single person present was thinking. Hell, that's what I thought of myself. That's what I was. Nothing but a coward._

"_You will learn respect. And suffering will be your teacher."_

_I couldn't help myself. I couldn't stop the tears from pouring down my face as I looked upon the man that I called Father. The man who had criticized me nonstop for years for not being strong enough or smart enough or good enough. The man who now held a burning fist heading straight for my face._

_I blacked out from the pain._

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

"GAH!"

I bolted upright from my place on the bed, gasping for breath. Sweat cascaded down my forehead and my back. Faintly, I realized that I was still shaking. Even after I noticed it still took me a few minutes before I finally got the trembling under control.

_It was just a dream._

But that wasn't right either. It was more than a dream. It was a memory. A memory that has been haunting me every time I close my eyes for the past year. Ever since I was banished.

_That's right. Today's the anniversary. _

One year ago today since that fateful Agni Kai. An entire year since I had been cast out of my homeland and stuck on this pitiful excuse for a Fire Nation vessel with a motley crew of misfits thrown together haphazardly and sent of a fool's mission.

Capture the Avatar. Hah! I may not have been the prodigy my sister was, but I was no fool. It didn't take a genius to figure out the true motive behind my father's decision. With me out of the way, Azula had a free pass to the throne. It was actually quite clever. The Fire Nation's golden child becomes heir while the problem child gets sent away on an impossible quest. Kill two birds with one stone.

I never understood why my father hated me with such a passion. It didn't always use to be like this. There was a time when he actually cared about me.

_That was a long time ago._

Rising out from under the covers of my bed, I changed into a fresh set of black, leather pants and boots and donned a black, sleeveless training shirt with a gold trim. I pulled what remained of my hair into a phoenix tail and strapped my twin dao swords to my back. Taking a second to stare at the portrait I had hidden beneath a trap door in my desk, I walked out of my room and up to the deck above, leaving the smiling face of my mother behind.

-X-

I knelt on the deck of the ship using my blades to help support my weight. Sweat poured down my body in waves. I was exhausted. For hours I had trained nonstop in order to hone my skills. Whether I found the Avatar or not was of no consequence. I needed to use the time I had to improve my form and strength. If I didn't, then I would be wiped out long before I even had the chance to face him. There were other dangers that lurked at sea and on land other than a hundred year old man who could bend all the elements. Already I had been involved in several skirmishes with pirates this week; let alone the long forgotten number of skirmishes with them in the past year. Obviously, our small ship held the image of easy prey. Add in the few giant sea monsters and the occasional hurricane, and you begin to really hate the sea.

For the past year my world had drifted into a predictable routine. While at sea, I would wake up with the rise of the sun and head to the deck to work on my firebending. Occasionally I would incorporate my swords into the mix, like I had today, and train for at least two hours nonstop before I gave any orders to the crew. Then I would train for another few hours before taking a break to eat and study the maps.

I kept my distance from the crew. I didn't feel comfortable around them. They were all at least twice my age, and yet I was their superior commander. It was strange. I knew they resented me for it, I would often hear them when they sat together to eat. Mostly I just ignored them and ate in my room. My room was my fortress of solitude. In there I could practice my hand-to-hand combat moves and my sword techniques in peace without any wandering eyes watching my every move.

Back in the present, my Uncle waved at me from his seat at a table on the deck. A warm cup of tea lay in his hands as he sniffed it in pleasant content, an identical cup placed on the table next to an empty seat. A bowl of steaming noodles lay in the center of the table next to freshly baked bread and some neatly sliced cabbage.

"Come, Prince Zuko. Take a break and enjoy a nice bowl of noodles. It'll fill you up!" Almost as an after-thought he added, "Oh! Silly me! How could I forget about the tea! You simply must try this, Nephew. It's my own special blend of ginseng tea. It's quite delicious!"

I sighed in exasperation at Uncle's enthusiasm for tea. "I'm not hungry." As if to betray my own will, my stomach growled in hunger. My eye twitched at the sight of Uncle's knowing grin. He waggled his eyebrows at me and gestured at the food spread across the table repeatedly.

"Do you smell that, Nephew? That's the smell of happiness on a plate!" He held out his cup of tea for me to see. "And in a cup!"

Growling, I blew out a stream of fire from my mouth. Marching up to my smiling Uncle I snatched a biscuit from the table and bit into it fervently. "I'll eat when I'm good and ready!"

With the biscuit devoured, I began to walk back down to the deck to resume my training.

"Zuko, wait! You forgot to drink your tea! You mustn't forget the tea! It has special calming properties to ease that temper of yours."

Steam rose from my body. "I don't need any tea, Uncle. I need to resume my training so that I can capture the Avatar."

Uncle wasn't having any of it. "Nonsense, Prince Zuko. A cup of tea is good for the soul. Just one sip and all of life's troubles begin to melt away." As if to emphasize his point, he took another large gulp from his own cup and sighed happily. "Oh yeah, that really hits the spot!"

Realizing I was fighting a losing battle, I trudged back to the table, swiped the cup of tea from its place, and downed the whole thing in one go. I slammed the cup back onto the table and glared at Uncle. "There, I drank the stupid tea? Happy now?"

Uncle merely smiled at me and chuckled. "Ah, it's so good to have a nephew who listens to his dear old uncle."

Groaning, I turned away with the intention of finally getting some more training in. "What's the big deal about tea anyway? It's just hot leaf juice," I grumbled.

Unfortunately for me, Uncle heard that last little point. With a gasp, he cried out to me. "Just hot leaf juice? How could a member of my own family say something so horrible!?"

Sighing, I halted in my steps and turned to face Uncle who was busy wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. "Look, Uncle, I'm sorry. It's just that I'm sick of tea."

Big mistake.

My Uncle's eyes shot open and he seemed to choke on air. "S-Sick of tea!? That's like being sick of breathing!"

I groaned.

_When will I learn to keep my mouth shut?_

And so, because of my big mouth, I was forced to listen to yet another riveting lecture about the importance of tea and the respect that it deserved and all that nonsense. For two hours. Two, excruciatingly long, hours.

_I love Uncle, but sometimes I wish he had a mute button. _

When his lecture had finally ended, I trudged myself up to my room for some quick meditation and alone time. Shutting my door, my room was plunged into darkness. With my firebending, I lit seven candles and sat down. Closing my eyes, I lost myself in the steady rise and fall of my own breathing, the flames behaving in sync.

-X-

A resounding boom shook me from my meditation. From above, I could hear several shouts from the crew. The whole room was shaking.

_What the-_

Leaping to my feet, I rushed out of my room and onto the deck above, my swords strapped tight to my back just in case. A large wave of water poured from the top of the deck as I was climbing the stairs and washed over me, the force of it nearly causing me to keel over.

Grabbing onto the railing for support, I made my way up to the deck where I was met with another blast of water to my face. Sputtering, I looked around me to see the crew running to and fro across the ship, each one working to keep the ship in working order in the storm. I continued to look around the ship until I came upon the form of my Uncle about 15 feet to the left of me.

"Uncle!"

My cry was lost in the wind. The crack of thunder boomed in the air. I felt the lightning before I saw it. The energy sizzled in my veins as I saw the arc of pure energy descend upon my Uncle in an instant.

"NO!"

To my surprise, the lightning did not fry my Uncle like I thought it would. In fact, Uncle seemed to actually _catch _the lightning in his hand, streaming the current of energy across his arm and out through his index finger on the opposite arm. The lightning followed his guidance and exited his body, returning to its position in the sky before it disappeared completely.

_What the- Since when could he do that?_

My musings were cuts short as another viscous wave rocked the boat. I struggled to maintain my balance when I heard a soft cry.

"The Helmsman!"

Looking up I saw the helmsman dangling from the crow's nest. A fall from that height in this storm would assuredly kill him. Without even thinking I was already halfway up the ladder. The ship was rattled by yet another wave and the helmsman lost his grip. Acting quickly I reached my hand out and caught him by the forearm just in time. Once he had safely begun his descent down the ladder did I finally begin my own climb down.

"ZUKO! BRACE YOURSELF!"

_Huh?_

Too late did I realize the warning. A monstrous mountain of a wave crashed into my ship, dousing the entire boat in water and blocking my vision. Trapped in the water I lost my grip on the metal railings and was swept away in the wave. I struggled and squirmed under the pressure of the water. I kicked out with all my might in my attempt to reach the surface and fresh air, but it seemed like I had been dragged hundreds of feet below the ocean. The surface eluded me.

I clutched my throat with my hands and accidently breathed in a large gulp of water. I had been under for too long. At this rate I wouldn't make it. I'd be yet another casualty lost at sea.

_Can't… breathe!_

Refusing to give up, I continued to swim upwards until I finally broke to the surface. I gasped for air and coughed up the water in my system. To my right, I made out the distant silhouette of my ship, several hundred feet away.

_The sea carried me away this far? _

With smooth, powerful strokes, I started to make my way back to the ship. It didn't take me long to realize that I was swimming in vain. The current was strong and pulled me further and further from my ship. Fear gripped my heart as the violent waves overcame my body time and time again. My strength was beginning to weaken and my vision grew blurry. Water entered every crevice of my body, filling my lungs with salty water and trying to pull me down into the depths of the watery abyss. My ship was nearly out of sight now.

The whooshing sound of rushing wind led me to cautiously look behind me. My eyes widened in horror at the sight of a whirlwind of water and wind. A tornado in the middle of the ocean only fifty feet away from my position and gaining nearly gave me a heart attack. The viscous churning of the water created a whirlpool that was slowly, but surely dragging me into its center. With renewed vigor I kicked out and began to swim as fast and as hard as I could.

It wasn't enough.

More waves, each more violent than the last, pelted me with the fury of the spirits, Mother Nature herself conspiring to my demise. Soon I was once again dragged under the surface and yearning for the sweet taste of fresh air.

_No! I can't let it end like this!_

I fought with all my might to overcome Nature itself. I was not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

_There's still so much I have to do. I refuse to give in._

As much as I tried to overwrite fate, the Will of the Spirits was just too much for one man. It was too strong.

_I don't want to die!_

Soon I was dragged into the inner loops of the whirlpool. Faster, faster, and faster still I was spun around in the vortex of water. My body threatened to fall into unconsciousness, but I held on. Everything around me was dark as a moonless night, my head pounding from the pressure of the water attacking me from every part of my body. The last thing I remembered before I faded into the blissful recesses of unconsciousness was being dragged down the center of the whirlpool.

And then I was falling, like a comet in the sky.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

The pain hit me like a thunderbolt, sudden and without warning. My pure, blissful, dreamless sleep was compromised by a never-ending and unrelenting burning throughout my entire body.

_Ugh. What hit me?_

My eyes refused to open despite me. After several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and focused on gathering Intel with the help of my other senses.

_Soft. Warm. I must be in some kind of bed. _

A pleasant aroma entered my senses.

_Food._

My grumbling stomach voiced my thoughts on the matter. I was instantly reminded of how I hadn't eaten since who knows how long. I had no idea how long I had been out.

_I should have eaten those noodles Uncle had. _

And then, a new sense resounded throughout my eardrums, a soft chirping of birds.

_Birds? Shit! Birds!_

Ignoring the pain in my body, I bolted upright and forced my eyes open. The sound of birds could only mean one thing, either I had been picked up at sea and we had approached land, or I was no longer at sea at all.

Looking around, I saw that I was in a house made of wood and lying on a large bed in the center of a room. Pictures and flowers lay strewn about in various places. The whole place had a cozy feel to it, a sort of pleasant air that made you feel at peace. However, my mind was anywhere but at peace.

_Where am I? Where's Uncle? What happened to me?_

A light sound caused my head to snap in its direction. There I found a young boy, maybe a year or two younger than myself, staring back at me with round, turquoise eyes. When he saw that my eyes had locked on to his, he got up quietly and left the room.

Before I could think much about the bizarre situation, the boy returned into the room with several other people in tow. The first was an older man, most likely the boy's father, who had long, dark hair pulled back, a thin, neatly trimmed mustache, and a pair of glasses. A pretty, older woman I took to be the boy's mother came in next. Her long, brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail that lay over one side of her shoulder. She had warm, brown eyes and an apron draped over her shirt. She smiled kindly at me and took her place next to the man who now stood next to me.

The boy from before entered the room behind his supposed parents, along with a girl about his age who had a large, red scarf draped around her neck. At first I thought that she was the boy's sister, but a closer look revealed that she looked almost nothing like the boy or any of his parents. Her long, dark hair seemed shinier than the others, almost naturally so, and her eyes were a dark gray, almost black color. Her skin also differed from the others. Whereas their skin was paler, practically white in nature, hers was more like my own, light, but not overly so. As such I had difficulty placing her relation to the other three in the room.

In the few moments it had taken me to deduce all of this, the older man cleared his throat, signaling that he was ready to talk. I turned my gaze back to his and waited for him to speak. He took my gaze as a signal to go on, so he began.

"Are you feeling well, young man?"

_Ah, so the pointless questions come first._

"Better than before," was my curt response.

He seemed taken back, as if he wasn't expecting such a blunt reply.

"That's good. You're were in pretty bad shape when I found you in that field. You're lucky you weren't injured more. That fire I pulled you from was pretty fierce."

_Fire? That doesn't make sense. And why did he say he found me in a field. Shouldn't I have been laying near a shore?_

Clueless to my own thoughts, the man went on. "At first I thought that scar of yours was a result of the fire, but it looked too old for it to have been a recent injury. Mind telling me how you got it?"

_A fist of fire collided with my face. I fell to the ground in agony as my father towered over my fallen form. _

_It hurts. _

_The fire, it hurts._

As if reacting to the old memory, my face felt like it was on fire all over again. This time, however, I didn't so much as flinch.

"It's personal."

The man sighed, clearly unsatisfied, but unwilling to press further. For that, I was grateful.

"It was strange though," he said. "You were surrounded in flames, though not burnt. And when I pulled you out of the flames, you were wet to the touch. Almost like you had been soaked in water."

Flashes of my battle against the ocean passed before my eyes. "That's not surprising to me," I told him, "considering I was thrown out of my ship and tossed into the sea."

This new piece of information clearly shocked not only the man, but the woman and the two children as well. The young boy, who had been eyeing me with distrust the whole time, now leaned in close to me and grabbed my arm.

"You were at sea? Then that means you must have been outside the walls! Do you hear that, father! There are other people out there!"

Yanking my hand out of the boy's grasp, I looked at him with disdain. "What are you talking about? What wall? And there are plenty of people who travel by sea."

The boy was persistent. "Really!? I can't believe it! Aren't you afraid of the Titans at all though?"

_Titans? What is he talking about?_

When I voiced this thought the entire room grew silent. Unease began to build in my stomach.

The man looked at me like I was an alien. "Young man, do you not know what a Titan is."

I looked at him like he was crazy. "I have no idea what you all are babbling about."

The young girl spoke for the first time. "Who are you?"

I raised my chin proudly and exclaimed, "My name is Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne!"

_Not anymore. _

I squashed that traitorous part of my brain. It didn't matter that I no longer held the right to the throne. Once I found the Avatar and brought him back home, Father would welcome me back with open arms. Everything that I had lost would be mine again.

_Stop deluding yourself. You know that will never happen. _

I kept the internal war raging inside my mind to myself, refusing to let my insecurity show to these peasants.

The boy tilted his head to the side.

"What's the Fire Nation?"

My jaw nearly fell to the floor.

"W-What are you talking about? The Fire Nation is the most powerful country on the planet! Everyone knows about us!"

The boy was unconvinced. "Never heard of it. Ne, tou-san. Have you ever heard of it before?"

The father shook his head. "No, I have not."

_I don't believe this. Just what kind of rock had they been hiding under these last hundred years?_

The man turned his grim face over to my own. "Zuko, just how much do you remember before you lost consciousness?"

I told him everything that I could remember. How I had been meditating in my room when the storm had struck. How I had saved the helmsman of my ship. And how I had been thrust into the unforgiving waters of the sea, as well as the whirlpool that had sucked me in.

The man listened to my every word intently. When I had finished, he closed his eyes and sighed. "Zuko, I have lived here for a very long time. I know this valley inside and out. The sea is nowhere near here at all. In fact, I've never even seen a sea like the one you speak of."

_How is this possible? I mean, I could be in one of the more central regions of the Earth Kingdom, but that doesn't explain how he doesn't know about the Fire Nation, or even how I could have gotten here from the sea in the first place._

The man continued. "In fact, when I first saw you, I had no idea you were human at first. All I saw was a large ball of fire falling from the sky like a comet. When I went to investigate, there you were in the middle of a field, fire strewn all around you. To be honest, I'm surprised you survived a fall from that height and at that speed in the first place."

My face scrunched in confusion. This couldn't be possible. What was I doing in the sky? Could that water cyclone have been the cause of all this? My head was spinning with all this information in my head.

_I don't understand. What's going on? What happened to me? Where- Where am I?_

A migraine washed over me and I clutched my head in desperation. Vaguely, I was aware of the man saying something to me, though I couldn't hear him. His wife and the boy tried to talk to me as well. I could see their lips moving though I couldn't make out what they were saying. Their voices only added to my aching head.

"Everyone just **SHUT UP!**"

I thrust my hands out to my sides and released a large ball of fire out of each palm. Gradually, my headache subsided and I steadied my breathing. Looking up, I came upon the shocked faces of the four people in the room.

"He-He just created fire out of thin air!" cried the young boy.

Realizing what I had done, I looked to my sides and saw the fire burning brightly against the wooden walls. Not wanting the whole place to burn down, I made a motion with my hands and snuffed out the flames. If possible, that seemed to shock the family even more.

"And now he made it disappear with his mind!"

The man leaned in close to me and grabbed my arm. He started to inspect it like there was something wrong with me.

"W-What are you doing? Let go of me!"

He turned to me and fixed his gaze upon mine. "How did you conjure up those flames just now?"

I didn't understand what everyone was so worked up about. It was just a simple firebending move. There was nothing that special about it.

_Wait a second. These people said that they never heard of the Fire Nation before. That means that they probably don't know about firebending either. _

But still, they must have some sort of bending here. Why did they seem to be so shocked?

When I told him of this, he looked at me and began to shoot off a multitude of questions, one after the other. What else could I do? Could I manipulate other elements? Were there others that could? What was the principle that enabled me to create and control fire?

I answered his questions as best as I could, though I was nearly overwhelmed at the intensity of his tone. For several long, tense minutes he was silent. The deep creases in his brows told me that he was thinking hard over all the information I had provided him. Finally, he spoke. But what he told me was enough to blow my mind away. He suggested that I had fallen to this world… from another world.

…

The idea was preposterous! There was no way such a thing was possible.

_But it makes sense._

It did make sense, in a way. It explained how they had never heard of the Fire Nation, or bending, or anything I told them about my world. And it explained why I had no knowledge on these "Titans."

_But still, another world. _

A wave of nausea permeated my senses.

_Everything I had known, my Father, my homeland, my throne, Uncle… it was all just a distant memory now. Out of reach. _

Only with sheer willpower did I keep the tears at bay. I had sworn to never cry again, and I wasn't about to renege on that promise now.

A warm hand rested on my shoulder. I didn't look up, but the man talked anyway. "I'm sorry. We've been talking all this time and we haven't even introduced ourselves. My name is Grisha Jaeger. This is my wife Carla, and my son, Eren. Mikasa," he said, pointing to the small girl with the scarf, "is our adopted daughter."

_That explains why she doesn't look like the rest of them._

The man, Grisha, continued. "I know this must be very hard on you. This is a lot to take in and you're still so young. If you'd like you are welcome to stay with us. We could always use a strong lad like yourself, and maybe you can find a place with us. I know it's not much, but I'd be happy if you would join our family."

The honesty in the man's voice caught me off guard.

_F-Family?_

It was not what I was expecting. These people were not Royalty. One quick look at their clothes was enough to confirm that fact. They were not a family of class. They didn't even look strong. But still…

_Their eyes… they're kind._

The children were wary of me, that much was certain. But really, that was a plus in my book. It would be foolish to welcome some stranger into your home without some level of distrust. But the parents, they were honest. I could tell Grisha was a smart man, he had those eyes. But he was also compassionate. And the mother… her smile was warm and inviting. In fact, she looked overjoyed at the prospect of a new family member.

Years of abuse and constant criticism from my father and sister had left me wary of placing trust in others. The only exceptions were my mother, Uncle, and my cousin Lu Ten. Mother was gone, Lu Ten was dead, and now I was separated from Uncle across worlds. Still… there words and advice echoed in my mind.

_Do not be so afraid to trust in others, Prince Zuko. While there are those in this world that prefer to work in loneliness, there is no one that can withstand it. _

I took a deep breath, and nodded at Grisha. I would accept his offer. I would start anew in this world.

I had just one condition. "I want to keep my surname," I told him. In honor of my family.

_In honor of Uncle._

"Zuko Kasanagi."

He smiled, along with his wife. Their boy, Eren, came up to me once again and began to ask me about what life was like where I grew up and all the things that I had seen. He told me how he had another friend named Armin who would want to meet me as well. Mikasa stayed by his side even as he talked, silent, and wary.

_Overprotective of her sibling, eh. _

I envied him. He was surrounded by loving parents and sister. I yearned for what he had.

_Maybe I can have it._

Perhaps this would be a blessing in disguise. Perhaps I could finally have the family I always wanted. Maybe my hardships had finally come to an end.

If only I knew just how wrong I was.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

It was strange. Since a young age I had been brought up to be stiff and formal on all occasions. That atmosphere was nonexistent in my new family. Everything was so carefree and happy that I soon found many of the manners I had learned over the years being flushed down the proverbial drain. I had only been a part of the family for a few days, yet I had already become accustomed to their lifestyle, and the refreshing freedom that I had gained now that I was no longer tied to my destiny of searching for the Avatar or living life as the Prince of the Fire Nation.

The only downside was that I had to hide my firebending. At Grisha's request, I had to keep that part of me a secret, for fear of the military taking action. He feared that they would see me as a threat to humanity and dispose of me or, even worse, use me as a tool against the Titans.

Titans.

During my first week I caught my first glimpse of a Titan. I had been out collecting logs with Eren and Mikasa when a thunderous booming shook the very ground I stood upon. I had rushed to the nearest gate and saw, to my horror, the terror known as the Titans.

They were big. They were ugly. And they were horrifying. I had been told of how they would leave all wildlife alone, all except for humans. They would feast on human flesh and wouldn't rest until all humans in their vicinity were eradicated. They didn't stop. They had no purpose. They existed simply to torment humanity.

For the first time that night, I had nightmares not of the day that I received my scar, but of the idea that a Titan could come and gobble up my newfound family.

Fortunately, these walls that protected humans from the Titan threat had withstood the force of time for over a hundred years. Even with that assurance, however, Eren was convinced that humans needed to fight against the Titans and expand their territory beyond these walls. In his mind, there was no telling when these walls would give way. For my part, I was content. I had a family now. That's all that mattered.

-X-

Soon after my first experience witnessing a Titan, I had gone to the field where Father had found me to work on my sword fighting skills. I was so glad that I had put them on that day on my ship, and that Father had taken them when he had taken me. I always felt so free when I had a blade in my hands, it was the one thing that came naturally to me. My skill had only increased when Uncle had introduced me to the great Sword Master Piandao. Under his tutelage, my skill with blades had reached new heights. And I had never let that skill die over the years.

While I was busy working on my seventh set, my senses informed me that I was being watched. I stopped my movements and turned to my side to see Eren and Mikasa diligently watching me from the sidelines.

Smiling, I gestured them over. Eren had seen my graceful movements and wanted to try it himself. Handing him my swords, I laughed as he clumsily handled the dual blades. Taking the blades back, I explained that these were dual swords, two halves of a single weapon. "You can't think of them as separate, because they're not. They're just two parts of the same whole."

I demonstrated my technique expertly and sliced a flower evenly right across the middle. I handed the swords back to Eren and watched as he swung them more carefully this time. I smiled when he was done and turned to Mikasa.

"You're turn."

She seemed hesitant at first, but once she grabbed a hold of the blades, it was as if she had been handling them her whole life. With precision, she swung the blades like an extension of her own arm before she handed them back to me quietly.

_Well I'll be damned. Another fucking prodigy._

Despite how much it reminded me of Azula, I didn't mind. She was nothing like Azula.

-X-

I met Armin by chance one day when Eren, Mikasa, and I were walking around town. He was being bullied by a group of bigger kids. Immediately Eren took off after the group of bullies. When they saw Eren coming towards them, the group of kids laughed and seemed unafraid.

That changed once they saw Mikasa.

She ran like a demon and I can only imagine her face was contorted into that of one as well. One look at her and those kids were gone.

"Looks like I scared them off," laughed Eren.

_More like Mikasa scared the shit out of them._

Eren then introduced me to his friend, Armin. He was the one who had told him all about the world outside. Supposedly, his parents had gone out past the walls to see the world beyond themselves. They had yet to return.

Still, this didn't discourage the two boys from dreaming of the day they set foot outside the walls themselves.

-X-

"Zuko! Come play with us!"

The voice came from a small little girl in a blue dress, a teddy bear clutched tight in her tiny arms. The wind blew her blonde hair to the side and caused certain parts to frizz up. Her large, innocent, round eyes pleaded with me to play with her and her younger brother and sister.

I had met the girl, whose name was Amy, about a week before I had met Armin. I had gone into the market district alone to purchase some food for Mother to make. After purchasing a few cabbages, carrots, radishes, and several other assorted vegetables, I was about to head back when I noticed a commotion going on a few stalls down.

An old man was yelling at a frightened young girl with an apple in her hand.

The poor girl, who was Amy's younger sister, Emilia, had tried to steal the apple to feed her family. Later I would learn that the girl's father had fallen in battle against the Titans and now their family had no sustainable income. They were running low on food and starving as it was. Their mother tried the best that she could, but as hard as she worked she was unable to sufficiently feed her children as well as she would have liked.

"I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget, thief!"

The man lifted a knife he had pulled from his coat pocket and raised it above the trembling girl's arm. Her tear-filled eyes were overflowing with fear.

Having seen enough, I quickly made my way over to the scuffle and grabbed the man's arm before it fell upon the girl's. He turned back to glare at me, but I just glared right back.

"That's enough," I commanded. I pulled out the extra money I had saved and slammed it onto the man's stall to pay for the stolen apple. Grabbing the shaking, I made my way out of the market and into a more secluded alley.

"You should be more careful when you do something like that," I reprimanded. "If you're not going to do something right, you're better off not doing it at all."

The poor girl sniffed. "S-sorry, but I had to try."

Impressed at the girl's resolve, I laughed. "You're right. It's better to try and fail than not try at all." I grinned. "Although next time, just look for me and I'll help you out. That way you won't have to steal again."

The girl wiped her eyes and beamed at me. "Okay!" She extended her hand towards me. "I'm Emilia."

I smiled as I took her hand and shook. "I'm Zuko. Nice to meet you Emilia."

"I saw what you did back there."

Turning around, I young girl about ten years old jump down from a crate with a boy a few years younger than her follow suit. Unlike her graceful landing, he fell flat on his face.

"OOF!"

"Michael! I told you to time the jump!"

After helping her brother to his feet, the two sauntered over to where I knelt as if nothing had happened.

"Like I was saying, I saw what you did. You really helped my sister out there mister." She grinned up at me.

All I could muster at the strange situation I had found myself in was a curt, "No problem."

The girl grinned, showing off a missing tooth. "How'd ya like to be a part of our gang?"

I sweat-dropped. "No thanks."

The girl seemed crestfallen. "Aw c'mon! Why not? It's a lot of fun!"

I made to get up, but the girl wasn't about to let me go without a fight. I can respect that, but it's a little annoying when a ten year old girl latches onto your leg and starts saying "Please! Please! Pretty pretty please!" over and over and over again.

"Urgh! Let me go! Get off of me!"

I tried to shake the girl off my leg, but that only caused her to tighten her grip.

"Please! Please! Please! Please! Puh-lease!"

"I said no! Now let me go! Cut it out!"

"But we can go on adventures! And camping trips! Ooh! We can roast 'smores over a roaring fire and tell ghost stories! It'll be so much fun! Don't you want to have fun?"

I scowled at the girl. I gave a few more shakes of my leg for good measure. "No, I hate fun."

The girl's sister, the one I had saved, Emilia, clutched the apple she'd been eater closer to her chest. Her eyes grew large and wide, as if she had just heard something terrible. "Y-you h-h-hate fun?" she whimpered.

My eyes widened. I started waving my arms around desperately.

"No, wait! Don't cry!"

Too late. The girl began to cry softly.

I groaned.

_Great. I just made a little girl cry. Good job, Zuko._

"Wow, smooth move their, Hothead. Do you enjoy making little girls cry?" taunted the girl still attached to my leg.

I growled in anger. "Alright! Fine! I'll play with you!"

All three of the siblings beamed brightly at me. "Great! Let's play house!"

Groaning, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

-X-

"Zuko dear, could you pass the soy sauce."

"Sure thing."

I passed the sauce to Carla, my new adoptive mother, and went back to my chop cutting the vegetables. The two of us were making dinner tonight. I enjoyed spending time with her doing things like this. It reminded me of my real mother.

"I'm sorry to make you help me out like this. Eren means well, but he just doesn't care for cooking at all. Mikasa would help, but I know she prefers to be with Eren."

"It's fine," I told her. "I used to do things like this with my mother all the time."

She smiled warmly at me. "You must miss her dearly."

Grimly, I nodded. "Yeah, I do."

She must have sensed that this was a sore subject for me, so she didn't press me any further. Instead, she asked me what it was like to grow up as a Prince.

I told her how everything was always so stiff and formal. As a Prince I was expected to always be on my best behavior. It would be unseemly for me to act in any way less than perfect.

"It was pretty stuffy actually. Being a Prince wasn't as easy as you would think. Sure, we were rich, and we always had a lot to eat, along with servants to cater to our every whim and desire, but there was always so much that I was expected to do."

With exasperation, I explained how I had history lessons and calligraphy lessons and etiquette lessons and lessons about lessons. And on top of all that I had to keep up with my firebending forms.

"Unfortunately, I was never the greatest or brightest of students. I tended to mess up pretty often. I wasn't the worst firebender, especially considering how late I started compared to other benders, but it was still a disgrace for a Prince to be so... average." Flashes of Azula passed by my mind. "Also, I was always overshadowed by my younger sister, Azula. She was younger than me by about two years, yet she was still a solid fourteen or so forms ahead of me. Because of that, to my father, I was a disgrace."

My adoptive mother placed a comforting hand upon my shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to go through so much. I never would have thought royalty would have it so tough."

"It wasn't all bad."

My mother was the rock that kept me anchored to the ground. Together, we would sit at the royal pond and feed bread to the resident turtle-ducks. She would tell me all sorts of stories and jokes and everything.

"But then, one day... she just disappeared."

Just like that, one of my anchors was gone. My cousin had fallen in battle a few days earlier, and now two important people in my life were gone. The only one left who still gave a damn about me was my Uncle, but after the loss of his only son he went on a spiritual trip around the world. He wouldn't be back for a few more years.

That left me alone in a palace with my father and my sister.

Not the most pleasant of company, let me tell you.

Before I could say anymore, Carla pulled me into a tight hug and squeezed tight. "I'm so sorry, my son." Her scent was pleasant and warm. Just like my mother's. "Don't worry, I promise that I won't leave you."

I sank into her tight embrace and closed my eyes. "Thanks... mom."

-X-

It was night on the eleventh day since I had been adopted into the Jaeger family. The father had given me an old storage room that they didn't really use anymore for a room and had placed a makeshift bed in the center. It wasn't much, especially considering the environment I had grown up in, but I appreciated the gesture all the same.

I was just about to fall asleep when a creak from the door set my senses on high alert. A ball of fire was in my palm as I sat up straight in my bed.

Hey, old habits die hard.

After realizing that it was just Eren and Mikasa, I sighed and extinguished my flame.

"What are you guys doing up? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?"

Instead of answering my question, Eren approached my side and gazed at my arm in awe, Mikasa dutifully right behind him.

"That's so cool how you did that. Can you show us some more firebending?"

I knew he wouldn't be satisfied if I just sent him away without showing him anything. Besides, I relished in the opportunity to show off a bit.

"Watch this."

I began to play an old game that Lu Ten had shown me when I was younger. He would carefully form his fire into intricately designed shapes and objects of various sizes. Azula never cared for it as it served no practical military purpose, but I was awed by the amount of control and concentration it took to create something so beautiful.

At night, when I was alone, I would practice creating objects of my own. I showed my progress to my mother who would laugh and tell me how proud she was of me.

_I miss those days._

Still, seeing the overjoyed expression on Eren's face, and the spark of awe in Mikasa's own reserved eyes as I created a long, slithering dragon of fire, made me think that this whole situation wasn't so bad after all. There was no more pressure from my father to be the perfect son, no more viscous taunts from Azula. The whole ordeal surrounding my banishment and my mission to capture the Avatar was long gone. This world was a second chance for me, a new start on life. I intended to make the most of it.

"It's too bad I can't show you the bigger stuff without the risk of someone seeing," I told them. "If you think this is amazing, you should see what happens when I really go all out!"

Eren looked at me in awe. "With this, humanity just might have a chance against the titans!"

I looked at him warily. There was no point in me telling him that I had no interest in fighting the titans. Once he got worked up about the titans and how he planned on joining the Recon Corps, there was no stopping him. But that didn't mean I had to agree with him. I had finally gotten a chance at a normal life, I wasn't about to squander it to fight some monsters.

"R...Right. Anyway, it's getting pretty late. The two of you should probably go to sleep now, otherwise Kaa-san will wonder just what the two of you were doing in the night."

It was always fun to see them both blush profusely whenever someone poked fun or suggested that they were a couple.

_It can't be helped, they make it to easy._

Reluctantly, Eren exited my room. Mikasa shut the door behind her and I was once again bathed in darkness.

I closed my eyes.

-X-

"Thank you for the tea, Madame Amy."

"You are most welcome, Master Zuko."

"Ooh, ooh! Me next! Me next!"

"Quiet, Michael. You are causing a scene." The blonde girl turned back to me with a quick 'Tut, tut.' "I do apologize for the savage behavior of my poor brother, Master Zuko. He can be so uncivilized at times," she drawled.

"It's quite alright, Madame Amy. Though I would prefer if he could keep that animalistic screeching to the confines of his own private quarters, it's beginning to grate on my nerves."

"Oh, Master Zuko, you are most too kind."

The two of us laughed haughtily at the expense of the now pouting child.

"Humph! Why am I always the one being picked on?" he cried.

His sister grinned and wrapped her arm around his neck. "That's 'cuz ur the youngest, brother dear!"

While the boy tried to fight off the wrath of his older sister's dreadful "noogie of love," Emilia approached the flat rock we were using as a make-shift table and placed a tray with a plate of cookies and some carrots, dressed in a cute little maid outfit.

"Excuse me. Your snacks are ready."

Amy ceased in her attacks on her brother and immediately regained her haughty composure with a cough. "Ahem. Yes, thank you for your good work. Now, begone peasant!"

It was hard to keep a straight face when Amy, drunk with power, started acting just like Azula had as a child. The thought that this little girl had the mindset of a young Azula was frightening, yet amusing.

_I never would have thought that I would be playing house with a bunch of kids._

So much had changed in the two months since I had entered this world. It had only been a short time, but I was already a fully-fledged member of the Jaeger family.

Two months ago I never would have believed that I'd be hanging out with a bunch of kids younger than me and playing house instead of training for some inevitable showdown with a legend. I never would have imagined that I'd spend my days relaxing, enjoying the refreshing breeze of a gentle wind as I gazed at the peaceful sky above. I never would have dreamed that I could find a family that loved and cared for me like these had.

It was like a dream come true.

"-uko. Zuko! Are you listening to me? Zuko!"

The gentle tug on my shoulder broke me from my reverie. I glanced at the pouting Amy who had dropped her pompous façade. "Zuko!"

Smiling, I apologized for blanking out. "So what were you saying again?"

Still pouting, the girl pointed to the top of my head. "I was asking you when you were going to get rid of the stupid looking ponytail! It's so weird looking!"

With a mock gasp, I pushed the girl away lightly. "Never would I ever! How could you even suggest something so terrible!?"

"It makes you look bald!" she screeched.

I wagged my finger in front of her nose. "It makes me look manly," I corrected.

Truthfully, I just wanted to hold on to the phoenix tail that I had grown attached to. When I had been burned by my father, some of my hair had caught on fire. The barbers had wanted to cut it all off so that it would grow back evenly, but I persuaded them to leave that one patch. I didn't want my hair to grow out. I didn't want it to cover my scar, not even a tiny bit. I would carry myself with the pride of a Fire Nation Prince, no matter how hideous my face was or how ugly my hair made me look.

The ringing of bells in the distance caught all of our attention.

_The Recon Corps. They're back._

Knowing that Eren would be waiting at the front gates to witness their return, I bid my farewell to the kids and headed off in the direction of the bells.

-X-

A crowd of people had already formed along the streets. The Recon Corps trudged along on their horses silent like a grave.

_So few, _I thought to myself.

Looking around I caught sight of Eren, smiling like a fool with his mouth open wide, and Mikasa. In no time I had made way next to them.

"Hey," I called out.

"Oh, Zuko! You're just in time! The Recon Corps are back!"

Nodding, I turned to face the march of the soldiers. Men and women covered in bandages and blood walked solemnly through the streets, defeated. Not a single one of them were smiling. They looked like ghosts, like a bunch of livestock that had escaped the butcher today, but knew they soon be sent back to the slaughterhouse.

A pretty accurate analogy, if I do say so myself.

Whispers began to run like wildfire throughout the crowd.

'Why are there so few of them?'

'A bunch of them got eaten, I guess."

'Well, this is what you get for going outside the walls.'

An old women pushed her way past the crowd and began to plead for the whereabouts of her son. The man she approached signaled to a man behind him and revealed a cloth with something wrapped inside. Handing it to the woman, she unwrapped it to find the bloody remains of an arm. With a gasp of fright the woman dropped the bloody carcass to the ground and fell down to her knees.

"I'm sorry, that was all that we could salvage of him," explained the man.

The woman cradled the severed arm tightly to her chest like a mother to her newborn and locked eyes with the man.

"But… my son… he was useful, right? He… he might not have been a hero… but he at least died helping mankind fight back, right?" screamed the woman.

At first, the man nodded his head and agreed.

_Liar._

I could see it in his eyes. That woman's son had died in vain.

As if feeling the guilt press down on him, the man fell to his knees and told the truth.

"No… during this mission, we… No… even after all of our missions, we… we still haven't made any progress at all!" he screamed.

The woman looked as if she was about to faint then and there. She was deaf to the rest of the man's speech."

"I'm a failure. I've just gotten soldiers killed left and right! And we still haven't learned anything useful about the Titans!"

-X-

The soldiers soon passed on their way after that. Like a switch, the murmurs of the crowd ignited once again.

'Well that sure was some heavy shit right there.'

'You're telling me.'

'Still, who would've guessed that all of this was for nothing?'

'So all we've been doing is offering ourselves to them as free lunch?'

Eren, seething from the comments of the men around him, grabbed a stick from his sack and wacked the last man to have spoken across the head with it. The man turned to see who had struck him and growled in fury.

"What the hell was that for, kid?"

I readied myself for a fight, but Mikasa pulled Eren away by the scruff of his shirt before anything serious could happen. Sighing, I followed after her.

With strength that betrayed her petite figure, Mikasa tossed Eren into a wall like a sack of potatoes. The sticks that were stuffed into his sack scattered across the floor in a mess.

"What did you do that for!? Look at what you've done to all the wood!"

Mikasa pierced Eren with her gaze. "Eren, have you changed your mind about joining the Recon Corps?"

I watched in tense silence as the two faced off. Dodging the question, Eren began to pick up the fallen wood. With a sigh, Mikasa and I helped him out until all the wood was back in its place.

"Let's go home," I offered.

_Away from all this madness._

-X-

Going home was a bad idea. Mikasa told on Eren, revealing his wish to join the Recon Corps. Immediately, Mother rounded on him.

"What are you thinking!? Do you have any idea how many people die outside those walls?"

The two of them argued back and forth on the matter until Father interrupted. To my complete surprise, he supported Eren on his decision, even promising to show him the basement when he returned from some business in the inner wall.

When he left, Mother resumed her argument with Eren.

"I won't allow it. I forbid you from joining something stupid like the Recon Corps."

Eren was furious. "Huh? Stupid? People who are content living like livestock are more stupid!"

With that final statement, Eren ran off. With trembling fingers, Mother grabbed Mikasa and begged her to watch over Eren. With a nod, Mikasa took off after the boy.

She turned her gaze to me, showing the tears that were ready to fall any second now.

"Zuko, my dear, I'm sorry. But please look after the two of them. I know that you've gone through a lot. I know how much you just want to live a peaceful life. Please, look after my stupid boy. Please, protect both of them."

She didn't have to say it. I would have done it without her telling me to.

Pulling her into a tight embrace, I whispered into her ear, "On my honor, you have my word."

The tears finally fell as the sobs wracked her body. With a final smile of farewell, I took off after my foolish siblings.

-X-

I found them on the steps of the plaza overlooking the river. The two of them sat with a beat up Armin. Silently, I joined them on the steps.

"Zuko!"

I nodded my head towards Armin. With my back against the wall, I crossed my arms and closed my eyes, feeling the wind brush against my face. Soon enough, Eren continued where he left off.

"Che, we just want to go outside. What's so wrong with that? It's our lives we're risking."

"You can't do that," spoke Mikasa. "You can't."

As if just remembering, Eren questioned Mikasa as to why she had to tell his mother on him.

"What does she know anyway?" muttered Eren in reference to his mother.

"She's right."

All eyes turned to face me after I had spoken.

"Zuko! You too?"

With only one eye open, I fixed Eren with a glare.

"All she wants is for you to be safe. You saw what happened today, with that old woman. Do you want the same thing to happen to your mother? Do you really want to put her through that kind of pain?"

For the first time since I had known him, Eren seemed ashamed.

"Well… it's just that…"

Without waiting to hear how he would dig himself out of that one, I pushed on.

"Do you really want your mother to grow through the pain of outliving her own child?"

That last thought was meant for me. I remember Uncle and how crushed he had been when he had lost Lu Ten. Even when he had finally returned to the Palace after several years, he was still never the same, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

_I never want to see that kind of pain on someone I care about ever again. _

Tense silence washed over the four of us. I shut my eyes and lost myself in the relative peace. After a few minutes Armin, ever the strategist, spoke up using logic to defend Eren.

"People are crazy for believing that these walls will protect us forever."

What he said made sense, no matter how much I wished to deny it. My eyes were shut, but I could hear the voices of children at play, and loving mother's and father's doting over their children. I could feel their energy, their chi. It was so warm and comforting.

_It's so peaceful._

_I don't want this to end._

"Even though these walls have been intact for the past 100 years, there's nothing that can guarantee they won't be broken down today…"

I was content. Everything was so peaceful. The quiet lull of the setting sun relaxed my muscles. Slowly, I began to drift off, intent on enjoying a relaxing, peaceful, and blissful slumber. I began to concentrate only on my breathing, blocking out every other noise around me.

_In… out… in… out… in… what the!_

With a start, my eyes flew open. I jumped to my feet and fell into a fighting stance facing the direction of the gate far off in the distance. I had felt something, some strange, twisting energy that scared me to my very bones.

_This feeling…!_

A bolt of red lightning struck the ground where I was facing and a thunderous boom shook the ground. From the top of the walls, a monstrous red hand clutched at the rock for support.

_Titan!_

Armin was in complete shock, as were the rest of us. "No way… That wall is 50 meters high!"

"It's them," gasped Eren as a large, skinless head peeked out from atop the wall. Steam seeped from its flesh so hot, that I could feel the heat from where I stood. "Titans!"

"What is it doing?" I asked to no one in particular.

As if to answer my question, a massive crash resounded throughout the air. Smoke and debris flew up into the sky. Meteors of rock fell from the sky and spread out through the city. I watched as a family of four got crushed by the massive rocks, their blood splattering the walls and staining the ground. A mother and her baby were smashed by another falling rock.

Looking back, the colossal titan seemed to disappear. But no one was celebrating that particular bit of news. Something worse had happened.

"T-t-the gate… there's a hole in the gate."

Sure enough, a large hole could be seen in the gate. Already, titans were pouring in through the gate and picking up stragglers. Soon, they would be upon us. Soon, everything would all be over.

Humanity was finished.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

So here we go, my second story. For those of you who haven't read my first, I humbly beg you to check it out. It's called "Comet on the Grand Line."

Hope you enjoy this little rendition of mine.

For those of you who believe that Zuko acted a little OOC, especially in regards to how he played with the younger children, keep in mind that he was only at sea for a year. When he was a kid, he was a lot more happier and nicer. Granted, that was before his mom disappeared and his dad went all psycho, but I'm making a play on what would happen if the cruelty of time hadn't completely eroded that part of him just yet. Also, this new world represented a second chance for him. He's not under any pressure to please his father or anyone else anymore and he's been freed from the burden of searching for the Avatar. Royalty though he may be, he's still a kid, and not as crazy as his sister. Plus, it's just a story I'm writing for my own entertainment.

As for his last name, I remember reading a story before where they used "Kasanagi" as his surname. I thought it fit since the first part could be taken from the Japanese word "Kasai" for "fire" or "conflagration." I believe "nagi" can be taken to mean "calm" or "lull." So "Calm fire," I guess. Eh, it sounded cool so I'm rolling with it.

Don't expect future chapters to be anywhere near this length. I just wanted to set up a good base for the future. Also, I wanted to post a 10,000+ word chapter for the first time. I usually proofread myself, but I may have missed a mistake here or there. Just try to bear with it. If there's something really big, just message me or leave a comment and I'll replace the chapter with a fixed version.

Not sure when I'll be updating this story, though it wouldn't be more than a week or two. Still, go ahead and follow it so that you can see when I do. Next chapter, the Titans invade the city and shit really goes down!


	2. Shiganshina Falls

_"No way… That wall is 50 meters high!"_

_"It's them," gasped Eren as a large, skinless head peeked out from atop the wall. Steam seeped from its flesh so hot, that I could feel the heat from where I stood. "Titans!"_

_"What is it doing?" I asked to no one in particular._

_As if to answer my question, a massive crash resounded throughout the air. Smoke and debris flew up into the sky. Meteors of rock fell from the sky and spread out through the city. I watched as a family of four got crushed by the massive rocks, their blood splattering the walls and staining the ground. A mother and her baby were smashed by another falling rock._

_Looking back, the colossal titan seemed to disappear. But no one was celebrating that particular bit of news. Something worse had happened._

_"T-t-the gate… there's a hole in the gate."_

_Sure enough, a large hole could be seen in the gate. Already, titans were pouring in through the gate and picking up stragglers. Soon, they would be upon us. Soon, everything would all be over._

_Humanity was finished._

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

For several seconds, no body moved. We all simply stared at the gate. Armin was the first to speak. "A hole… h-he made a hole in the wall…"

Then the rumbling started. Distant booming footsteps echoed throughout the city district as the first of the titans emerged from the hole in the gate. The people who broke out of their transfixed shock first were already up and running the other way. Others were just now breaking out of their stupor and dashing off to escape the entering titans.

Those closer to the gate were not as lucky. Already, the titans had scooped up a handful of people and I got my first glimpse of why the titans were so feared.

The screams of those people still haunt me.

I turned to Mikasa. "Hey, we need to get out of here. **Now**." She nodded and we both turned to tell Eren. But Eren wasn't listening. He was still shocked and staring at the breached gate. Slowly, he ambled forward in a daze. "Eren!"

He didn't react to my call, instead continuing forward in a daze. "My house is over there… Mom is…"

I knew he wouldn't leave, not without his mother. I didn't want to leave her either, not after she had welcomed me into her home. Not after everything she had done for me since I had arrived in this world. I wasn't going to let Eren go through the pain of losing his mother. I wasn't going to let Mikasa lose a second mother. I didn't want to either.

Mikasa had already run off after Eren. I turned to Armin and grabbed him by his shoulders. "Armin, get to the boats. Flee to the inner walls."

The boy was near tears. "What about you and the others?"

"We'll meet up with you soon. Just **GO!**" I took off in a sprint towards the direction of the Jaeger household. Mikasa and Eren may have had a massive head start on me, but I still had years of physical training under my belt. It wasn't long before I soon caught up to them. But that didn't stop me from witnessing the horror all around me.

People lay strewn all around the street, victims of the debris. Beside their still forms, family members and loved ones weeped next to their bloody carcasses. And then there were the victims of the titans. The people screamed as they were snatched by the titans, struggling desperately in their grip. They kept screaming and calling for help to no avail. The only time they stopped screaming was when they didn't have the lungs to scream anymore. Literally.

We made a sharp turn at the next corner, hoping that our house was fine, only to gasp in horror and push forward even faster. Our house, was completely collapsed.

"MOM!" cried Eren.

We saw her lying in the wreckage, buried under the fallen debris. Thankfully, she was still alive.

"Mikasa, grab that side. Zuko, come help me over here."

I obeyed and began to use all the strength I had to try and lift the roof off of Eren's mother, the mother who just two months ago had taken me into her home and adopted me as one of her own. Flashes of my real mother disappearing so suddenly sent chills down my spine and motivated me to try even harder. But even with three people, the weight was just too much. We couldn't get her out.

More thunderous booms echoed, causing a lapse in our lifting. We turned to the direction of the sounds and saw multiple titans entering the district. The screams of the people in that area increased ten-fold.

"Hurry Mikasa! Zuko!"

Eren went back to trying to lift the debris. His mother stared ahead, watching as the titans poured in. "The Titans are coming in. Eren, take Mikasa and Zuko and run! Hurry!"

I watched from the corner of my eye as Eren ignored his mother's plea. "I want to run too!" he cried. "Hurry up and get out!"

"My legs have been crushed by the debris." She tried to reason with him. Eren's face grew more desperate with every word she uttered. "I can't run even if I get out." She turned to me. "You understand, don't you?"

I did. I hated to admit it, but I understood all too well how this scene was going to end up. Even if we did manage to free her from the debris, if she couldn't run then she was a liability. I cursed myself for even thinking of her like that, but my military training had already kicked in. I could try to carry her, of course, but even though I was stronger than Eren, the extra weight would slow me down considerably. Eventually, the titans would catch up.

The way I saw it, there were three different endings that could play out. The first being what I had just described. We might get her out. I may be able to carry her. But we wouldn't get far. The second option was that we could run now. Eren's mother, the kind woman who had taken me in, would be devoured, but Eren, Mikasa and I could safely reach the boats to take us to the inner walls.

There was also one other option. I could fight off any titans that got in our path. Eren and Mikasa could dig her out and while Eren carried her, I could defend them from the onslaught of the titans. This world hadn't seen the extent of my abilities. They didn't know that I had been a part of a war that spanned a hundred years. They didn't know what I was capable of. I had been training to take down the Avatar, the most powerful person on the planets. How bad could a few titans be? I could do this.

A resounding **BOOM **didn't give me much time to dwell on the issue. Just thirty feet away a titan stood, smiling at us with its bloody smile. Apparently, it hadn't eaten its full. Solemnly, I ceased in my lifting to the confusion of Mikasa and the anger of Eren. He was about to reprimand me when I told him to keep lifting and turned to face the looming titan in front of us.

It was a hideous, grotesque creature. It had no clothes, no genitals no spark of intelligence anywhere. Its eyes stared ahead as if in a trance, or a deep sleep. It angered me, to see this… this _thing _acting so carefree after all the destruction it had caused, all the lives it had taken.

Anger welled inside of me, pushing down against the fear until all that remained was a primal desire to _burn. _Flames flickered into existence and snaked around my arms. I quelled the voice in my mind that told me this was fruitless, that I was only quickening my death. I ignored the pleas from Eren's mother, begging me to take the others and _run. _

_Run? _I thought. _Run like a coward? _I looked at the flames resting in my palms, waiting to be unleashed. _Why should I run? I have power. If I can't use this power to protect the people I care about, then what use is it?_

With a deep breath, I cast the first flame. Punching forward I willed the flames in my hand to rocket out of my fist and into the air, straight into the eye of the massive titan. The titan's bellow confirmed my belief that the titan could feel pain, or at least react to attacks.

_If it can feel pain, then it can be killed._

I held on to that hope and followed up on my attack, punching numerous balls of fire rapidly from my fists. However, it seemed to disregard all the attacks that hit its body, only reacting to ones that impacted with the head, or, more specifically, near the neck.

Even with that information in hand, I wasn't able to deal any significant damage to the monstrous beast. Soon, the titan was looming over me, casting dark shadows over the surrounding areas in a ten foot radius.

I dodged the initial few attempts at grabbing me, shooting flames off wildly. This time I started aiming for the legs, intending to try and topple the giant. At the very least, it could buy us some time. After a few more unsuccessful grabs, the titan took one massive stomp and shook the earth to the core. The vibrations caused me to lose my balance and stumble, allowing the titan to catch me off guard.

I had been caught.

As I struggled vainly to free myself from the titan's grip, images of my life flashed before my eyes. Everything, from the good things, to the bad things, to the things I had buried so deep in my brain that I had forgotten them until now. The threat of death has a funny way of doing that to people.

It was like I was watching myself from outside of myself… if that makes any sense. I don't know. My mind blanked and all I could see was the titan's giant eyes staring right through me, the saliva dripping from its bloody mouth.

I screamed and set my body on fire, hoping to force the titan to loosen its grip enough for me to slip free. No such luck. In fact, from what I could see, any damage that I caused the titan, now or earlier, seemed to already have healed completely, leaving no trace of previous injuries.

As if it had never been attacked in the first place.

My eyes widened at this new piece of information. _It… it regenerates? _That would explain why they were so difficult to kill. But still, it had to have some weakness. It couldn't be invincible… _could it?_

Unfortunately, it looked like I wasn't going to ever find out. I was inches away from the titan's massive mouth. The stench of the blood caked on its lips from past meals made me sick to my stomach. Faintly, I wondered if I would be swallowed whole, or cleaved in two from the titan's brutal looking teeth.

Despite myself, I trembled.

All my previous anger evaporated in the face of death. Before, I had never given death much thought. I had accepted it as a natural course of life, of course. We live, we grow, then we die. But I never thought that I would die so soon. Now, faced with death looming over my shoulder, I found myself dealing with an emotion that I was familiar with more times than I would have preferred.

Fear.

I was scared. Scared of dying. Scared of being eaten. Scared of once again losing people that I care about. My mind drifted to Lu Ten and my mother.

_I… I don't want to die…_

In a last ditch effort, I opened my mouth and screamed. Fire burst out from my mouth and collided with the titan's eye once again. The fire burned right through the eye and the titan seemed to almost stumble. It was to my relief that the titan's grip loosened just enough for me to squirm free and drop down. However, that brought with it its own problems as now I found myself falling a good 15 meters from the sky to the cold, hard ground below. Hastily, I pushed fire out of my feet and hands as hard as I could in mimic of a jet propulsion technique I had seen once to try and slow my descent. It worked, to a degree, but I lacked the strength and power to properly execute the technique. I survived the fall, but I dislocated my ankle from the fall, the bone partially visible under the skin.

Using my hands I quickly crawled away from the still titan. Fear prickled at my mind. I couldn't beat this creature. Already, its eye was reforming. Soon it would be after me again, and now I couldn't even run properly. I watched horrified as the titan's arm reached out to claim me.

_This is the end. _

Just before the titan could grab me, I was grabbed by a strong, thankfully human, hand and zipped to safety. A quick glance up allowed me to see Hannes, one of the Garrison soldiers. Hope flared inside me. He must have freed Eren's mother already. That hope died when I saw her, still trapped under the rubble, and shouting at Hannes to take Eren and run. Nodding, the man grabbed Eren and Mikasa with his other arm and, with great difficulty, took off running away from the titan.

Away from Carla Jaeger.

As we ran off to safety, I saw the titan lift away the rubble with ease and come up with her clutched in its hand. She struggled valiantly, but her pounding was fruitless against the strength of the titan. As if annoyed with her behavior, the titan grabbed her with both hands and twisted. I forced myself to watch as the titan lifted her limp body, head first, to its grotesque mouth and bite down, its teeth easily splitting her body in half as the blood pooled to the ground.

I didn't blink the entire time. Not once.

-X-

It took ten minutes of straight running before Eren snapped out of his shock. Like me, he had watched as his mother was eaten by the titan. Eren began to hit Hannes repeatedly in the head before the man finally threw him to the ground. He tried to let go of Mikasa and I gently, but even the slightest of movements cause me to moan in pain from my ankle.

Eren shouted at Hannes and called him a coward for abandoning his mother, to which Hannes grabbed Eren by the shoulders and shouted at him to shut up. He said that the reason Eren couldn't protect his mother was because Eren was weak. Then he said that the reason he couldn't face the titan was because he was scared.

He said a few more things, but I zoned him out after that. I was stuck on what he had said earlier.

_Weak, huh? Yeah, I'm weak. I have the ability to control flames at will, yet I was powerless against one fucking titan. Father was right. I'm… I'm a disgrace. A failure. _

The sound of crying broke me from my stupor. Looking to my right, I saw a child, maybe three years old or so, sobbing next to the body of a woman who I guessed was her mother. The woman was impaled right through her stomach by a sharp end of debris that must have fallen from one of the houses. The little girl cried, tugging on the bleeding woman's skirt and begging her to wake up. She continued to plead with her unresponsive mother even as a titan walked forward.

"H-hey… girl… RUN!" I cried.

My cry did nothing to change the girl's reaction. She was too far away for me to reach, and my ankle prevented me from aiding her anyway. With a stomp, the massive titan's foot fell upon the form of the girl. The titan walked on as if nothing had happened.

I had never seen the aftermath of a person who had been crushed before. When the titan lifted its foot, the bloody pile it left behind sickened me. You couldn't even tell that it had been human once. The revulsion increased when I noticed pieces still clinging to the titan's foot as it walked.

I brought my palm to my face and trembled. _This can't be happening! _

Suddenly, my head snapped up. The girl's death reminded me of Amy and her siblings. _I have to find them! I have to save them!_

With determined eyes, I gripped my ankle, clenched my teeth, and snapped it back into place with a scream. Tears stung at my eyes, but I could at least walk now, albeit barely. Slowly, I limped to my feet and began to walk in the direction of what I knew to be their home. Hannes tried to stop me, I lit my fist on fire and snarled at him, the flames causing shadows to dance in my iris's. I told him to take the others to the boats and escape to the inner walls, and that I would meet up with them soon.

I didn't give him time to respond. With a clumsy dash, I took off towards the titan infested district once more.

-X-

The sound of Amy's voice gave me hope. I turned the corner and saw her leading her family my way. They were all there. Her mother, her brother, her sister, and Amy herself. Behind them, titans were snatching people up left and right and devouring them just as fast. I shuddered to think of how many people had lost their lives already. Of how many deaths Amy and her family had witnessed.

With a wave, I called out to Amy. Her eyes sparkled with joy at the sight of me, but I could see the fear and terror that lay hidden in them as well. The things she must have seen would most likely haunt her for the rest of her days, but at least she would live long enough for that to happen.

I smiled, relieved that they were okay and began to run towards them.

Then blood poured from a glass shard that struck Michael in the neck, a result from a titan who had smashed its fist into the window of a nearby house. He was dead before he hit the ground. I halted my steps in shock, and the next few moments zipped by in a blur.

The mother screamed at the loss of her youngest child, only to be picked up by a titan. It began to nibble on her form, legs first, causing her to scream from the agony, but not die right away. Slowly, she was devoured, and suffered pain like no other. She was still screaming when the titan gulped down the rest of her body.

Emilia, the middle child, began to cry. She started trembling uncontrollably until another titan used two fingers to grab her head. Immediately, her body froze and I watched as the titan squeezed just a bit too hard and caused her head to cave in. The blood from the implosion sprayed everywhere, with a good majority landing onto the face of the last surviving member of the family. Amy, who had watched her entire family vanish in a matter of seconds, stood frozen to her spot.

I yelled out to her to snap out of it and after one last look she sprinted towards me, the teddy bear she had been holding lying forgotten on the ground next to the corpse of her dead brother. From my spot I could see the titan responsible for smashing the glass that had led to her brother's death lunge for her. I screamed at her to watch out and just when I thought she was done for, she rolled just out of the titan's reach at the last second.

She was promptly snatched up by the same titan that had eaten her mother just moments earlier before she could get away. Her eyes became clouded with fear and she screamed for help.

"AMY!" I shouted and was already on my way, the flames igniting into existence along my fingertips… only to be snuffed out a second later when I felt the fear return to me of the last time I had faced one of the titans. That had only been one titan, now there were three and they were looking right at me, the rest of the people that had been here moments before having already evacuated... or eaten.

I could see the confusion in Amy's eyes when she noticed I had stopped. She screamed at me, asking me to help. Begging me. Pleading with me. She told me she was scared. She said she didn't want to die. She didn't want to be eaten.

"Z-Zuko? P-p-please. Help me! I don't want to die!" she pleaded. "Please. HELP ME!"

I almost did it. I almost went back to help her. But I didn't.

_I'm sorry._

The fear consumed me. It gripped me tight and refused to let go. I knew if I went back there I would die. So I did the sensible thing, the logical thing. I ran. Like a coward I ran and left a ten year old girl to be eaten by the titans all alone. I condemned her to death, just to save my own skin.

Her screams echoed throughout the district, begging me to come back. To save her. To not make her die alone. I ignored them all, feeling my heart break when her screams died out. On instinct, I looked back… and promptly threw up right then and there when I saw that the only part of her that remained, was a small piece of her bloody skull that had fallen to the ground, a few strands of her once beautiful blonde hair stained with thick blood over one eye that was still open and staring right at me. Accusing me.

I ran.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Wow. That was depressing. Damn. I can't believe I just killed off an entire family. Especially the children. Sigh. It had to be done. Attack on Titan was a depressing show to begin with, but that's what made it so epic. The realness of it all. Hands down it was the best anime of this year, and the best one I've seen in a long, long time. And the music they use in it! Argh! I wish I had that track!

As for why Zuko just left a little girl to face her death, I wanted to make his reaction more real and give more depth. He knows that he can't beat the titans. He tried it once and nearly died because of it. He's not stupid. And he's not about to break out some new save-the-day technique to finish them off either, 'cause that just doesn't happen. I wanted to bring out the sheer terror instilled by the titans, and that won't happen if he can just one-shot them out of existence.

But still, poor Zuko. His real mother disappeared on him, and now his adoptive mother just got ate. Sucks to suck. Not to mention he comes off as a giant douche for leaving a little girl to get eaten herself. And I come off as a giant douche myself for writing the scene in the first place. Sigh.

On another note, this story will definitely have Eren x Mikasa. There's just no way that won't be happening, no matter how much Mikasa claims he's her "brother."

Anyway, thanks for all the reviews so far. Let me know what you think, I like reading the reviews and I'm interested in hearing what you guys think of this chapter and this story in general. And once again, I apologize for the depression in this chapter. Things can only get better though... right? Sigh. Yeah, right.


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